georgehifi Posted August 10, 2018 Share Posted August 10, 2018 This is the second or third one this guys designed. Still no onboard RC volume control!!!!! https://www.massdrop.com/buy/massdrop-x-airist-audio-r-2r-dac?mode=guest_open&utm_campaign=Drop%... Pretty good reviews of the prototypes https://www.head-fi.org/threads/massdrop-x-airist-audio-r-2r-dac-a-discrete-resistor-ladder-dac-for-... https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/massdrop-rdac-airist-audio-r2-r-dac.6415/#po... Cheers George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_mac Posted August 10, 2018 Share Posted August 10, 2018 There was/is some controversy surrounding the design of this DAC: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/md-x-airist-x-sosolar-rdac-design-mysteries.6420/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgehifi Posted August 10, 2018 Author Share Posted August 10, 2018 Yeah they all look a bit alike, I thought the Denafrips or Halo? looked like they used Soekris diy boards. Cheers George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyW Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 I'm still keen to try one of these. The price is low enough to try out of curiosity. At the rate they're going though I may never get my hands on one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgehifi Posted June 14, 2019 Author Share Posted June 14, 2019 Zaphod ordered three of them back in 10-2018 they just got delivered yesterday. Here's some pics he took of the main board with discrete R2R Multibit daughter board attached. Cheers George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Muon N' Posted June 15, 2019 Share Posted June 15, 2019 (edited) Look at all those little critters on that PCB Call in the team from Fantastic Voyage for work on it Looks serious Edited June 15, 2019 by Muon N' Typo *sigh* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pops110 Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 @georgehifi How do they sound mate. Did Zaph have any thoughts on sound? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgehifi Posted June 20, 2019 Author Share Posted June 20, 2019 Sent an email, he's yet to reply. Cheers George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Volunteer sir sanders zingmore Posted June 20, 2019 Volunteer Share Posted June 20, 2019 10 hours ago, Pops110 said: @georgehifi How do they sound mate. Did Zaph have any thoughts on sound? Doesn’t Zaph think all DACs sound the same? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pops110 Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 You should tell him to pop back in for a bit. I miss myself and others butting heads with him and also yourself @georgehifi 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Addicted to music Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 11 minutes ago, Pops110 said: You should tell him to pop back in for a bit. I miss myself and others butting heads with him and also yourself @georgehifi He was hanging around somewhere else, but it looks like he’s just giving it a rest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgehifi Posted June 20, 2019 Author Share Posted June 20, 2019 9 hours ago, Pops110 said: You should tell him to pop back in for a bit. I miss myself and others butting heads with him 9 hours ago, Addicted to music said: e was hanging around somewhere else, but it looks like he’s just giving it a rest. You could check the members list to see if he's still active. For some reason I have only one attempt to open the page let alone search in it Cheers George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Muon N' Posted June 21, 2019 Share Posted June 21, 2019 Last visited Monday 4.47am, so still active, well..... potentially anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyW Posted June 25, 2019 Share Posted June 25, 2019 Very interested to see how these sound. That said, I'm done buying gear no matter how good it is.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Posted June 25, 2019 Share Posted June 25, 2019 9 minutes ago, MattyW said: Very interested to see how these sound. That said, I'm done buying gear no matter how good it is.... Do you mean the 2019 budget has been spent ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyW Posted June 25, 2019 Share Posted June 25, 2019 (edited) Pretty much the budget for the next 10 years. My wife saw a credit card statement..... Then we had a baby..... Best I can pull off are recaps etc now. Besides, I can't see it bettering my upgraded Muji Studio DAC II or Gieseler GroB + Kraftwerk PSU though you never do know. Had the chance to compare the Muji directly with a Lenehan PDX recently in my system.... Took about 20 seconds to hear that the Muji was significantly better Not sure if it's worth updating coupling and output caps in the Muji at this point..... Edited June 25, 2019 by MattyW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMax Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 Pretty much the budget for the next 10 years. My wife saw a credit card statement..... Then we had a baby.....Time to open up your own secret account! [emoji14] 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyW Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 Nah, I'm at a point where my two main systems as well as computer near field setup all sound pretty spectacular so there's just no point. I've lost the will to buy something to find out just how good it is to feed my curiosity..... I'm now just enjoying the music 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Misternavi Posted June 27, 2019 Share Posted June 27, 2019 On 25/06/2019 at 7:47 PM, MattyW said: Muji Studio DAC II I just eBay searched the Muji, looks interesting. How did you stumble upon it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyW Posted June 27, 2019 Share Posted June 27, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, misternavi said: I just eBay searched the Muji, looks interesting. How did you stumble upon it? Stumbled on it while looking for Philips TDA1541 based DAC's. It looked good for the price so I took a punt on it. Donald Tan found a few soldering issues he fixed up when converting it to 240V. Also installed DIP8 sockets in place of the 4x NE5534 it originally had. I found 2x Burson V5i-D and 2x Burson V6-D Vivid OPAMPS. I also changed the standard TDA1541A R1 HHH for a TDA1541 S1 HHH chip. It's the best I've ever heard with digital content despite a small amount of low level hum through my 97db efficient speakers. It's inaudible once the music starts anyway. It's made me question why I ever got into vinyl. It's just that good Edited June 27, 2019 by MattyW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickstuh Posted June 27, 2019 Share Posted June 27, 2019 @MattyW That Muji DAC does look interesting. Can you tell me what it does with 24/192 files and higher? That is, can it play them at all? And I am right in believing it has no volume control? Thanks, Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyW Posted June 27, 2019 Share Posted June 27, 2019 (edited) No volume control no. You use software to down sample files to 16/48. Fibre and coax inputs don't go higher I believe anyway. Beats out other DAC's I've tried with native DSD content. Quite incredible. It just doesn't need much for incredible results. Edited June 27, 2019 by MattyW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Misternavi Posted June 27, 2019 Share Posted June 27, 2019 No volume control no. You use software to down sample files to 16/48. Fibre and coax inputs don't go higher I believe anyway. Beats out other DAC's I've tried with native DSD content. Quite incredible. It just doesn't need much for incredible results.so how much more did you spend to get it to your current DAC? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Misternavi Posted June 27, 2019 Share Posted June 27, 2019 No volume control no. You use software to down sample files to 16/48. Fibre and coax inputs don't go higher I believe anyway. Beats out other DAC's I've tried with native DSD content. Quite incredible. It just doesn't need much for incredible results.so how much more did you spend to get it to your current DAC? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyW Posted June 27, 2019 Share Posted June 27, 2019 24 minutes ago, misternavi said: so how much more did you spend to get it to your current DAC? Probably $1500 or so. I consider it value still. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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